At the beer garden

Painted in 1883 on paper and held in an unidentified collection, 'At the Beer Garden' documents Menzel's observation of the Bavarian or Berlin beer garden — an institution of outdoor sociality that was among the defining features of German bourgeois leisure culture. Beer gardens, where families and friends gathered outdoors for food and drink in warm months, offered Menzel the same social subject matter as ballrooms and theatres but in a more democratic outdoor setting. His Bavarian visits to Bad Kissingen brought him into regular contact with this culture. The work-on-paper format suggests a rapid observational study made on the spot rather than a studio elaboration. Beer garden painting in Germany had its own modest tradition in the Munich Biedermeier period, but Menzel approaches the subject without the sentimental warmth that characterises that tradition.

The open-air beer garden setting creates a bright, summer-light atmosphere different from Menzel's enclosed interior subjects. Figures seated at garden tables provide the social subject, rendered with the rapid fluency of an experienced observer of public spaces.